Vine sucks up Fringe joke accolade

Tim Vine cleaned up with his Hoover one-liner at the Edinburgh Fringe festival

Comedian Tim Vine dusted off his joke book and cleaned up at this year's Edinburgh Fringe when his one-liner was voted the funniest wisecrack of the festival.

Vine, 47, saw his joke scoop almost a fifth of the votes in the competition run by comedy television channel Dave.

He won with the one-liner: "I decided to sell my Hoover ... well it was just collecting dust."

It is the first time the award has been presented to a previous winner. Vine triumphed in 2010 with the joke: "I've just been on a once-in-a-lifetime holiday. I'll tell you what, never again."

He was also runner up in 2011, 2012 and 2013.

On being crowned this year's winner, Vine said: "I'm a little bit surprised but very delighted. This is the second time I've won this award but I guess nobody loves a repeat more than Dave."

Steve North, general manager of Dave, said: "It's great to see a range of established and new comedians in this year's top 10. The award celebrates the fantastic range of comedy on offer at the Fringe, and Tim has once again proved he is king of the one-liners."

To find the favourite joke, 10 judges scoured the festival's venues for a week before nominating their three favourite jokes.

They were then put to the public vote, with 2,000 people choosing the 10 they found funniest.

Three female comedians also feature in this year's top 10 as jokes from Bec Hill, Ria Lina and Felicity Ward tickled the nation's funny bone, reflecting the overall reported 62% rise of women performing at this year's Fringe on last year.